Tag Archives: Afghanistan

This morning, suited and booted, I will be joining the ranks of the masses commuting into London.

This in itself, is hardly a big deal. After all, there are millions of people who do the same thing every single day but for me, it’s a very rare occasion. Normally, I avoid the rush hour like the proverbial plague.

Today however, isn’t a normal day. It’s actually a very special day. For at 11.30, a large group of military veterans led by a sizeable contingent of former Royal Marines, will gather in Parliament Square in a silent show of support for Sergeant Al Blackman who is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of a Taliban insurgent. And I will be one of them.

Don’t get me wrong, Sgt Blackman served in a very different military from the one I did. His career as a member of one of the worlds elite military fighting units involved front line combat in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan amongst other places. Mine, as a ground engineer in the Royal Air Force, generally involved avoiding work where possible and trying to squeeze as much money as possible from the RAF Motorsports Association.

However, we have one thing in common: we wore a British military uniform and whilst the colour of our beret’s was, and is, vastly different, it gives us a common bond. Which is why, like all the veterans in attendance tomorrow as well as the many thousands who cannot make it, I will be doing my utmost to show my disgust at the fact that a brave man languishes in prison simply because he was hung out to dry by the very people who were, and are, supposed to protect him.

So if you’re in London todayand you see anyone wearing anything which marks them out as ex-military, you know where they’re either going or have been.

It may or may not have escaped your attention that our Armed Forces are currently under attack. Not from ISIS (or whatever they’re calling themselves these days) but from a new enemy.

Ambulance chasers, traitors, filth, cowards, call them what you will (and trust me, whatever term you want to use, I agree with you) this enemy within is profiting, if not driving, a witch hunt against over 250 serviceman and veterans on the basis of often spurious historical allegations made against them during operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland.

That this is being allowed to continue is wrong on so many levels but the fact that the bulk of it is being funded by the tax payer, that’s you and me, beggars belief. What other country on this planet would send it’s men and women off to war and then undermine them in such a heartless and gutless manner once they return home? Isn’t it bad enough that so many are leaving the forces without proper medical care, work or even homes?

However, whilst all of this heaps further shame on an already shamed Ministry of Defence and the resident of 10 Downing Street, there is a silver lining. For in the face of this injustice, the veteran community are being unified like never before.

Army, Navy or RAF, you come after one, you come after us all and the vast majority of us have quite simply had enough of being targeted whilst the terrorists and guilty politicians walk free. And make no mistake, that same sentiment is increasingly being felt by those still in uniform.

We have already seen peaceful protests in London in support of Marine A and in Birmingham in support of L/Cpl J and more are planned for the coming months but in addition, the following advice is urgently being circulated to all those who have or who may or may not be contacted by any organisation carrying out an investigation of this kind:

1) Ignore any letters. They have NO relevance in law.

2) Do not under any circumstances attend any place or office if requested. If they want you, let them arrest you and a whole new ball game opens up.

3) If arrested say nothing request a lawyer. Number, rank, name is sufficient.

4) Whoever arrests you has 24 hours to charge or release you.

5). A tactic may be to bail you ‘pending further enquiries’ if this happens make an immediate complaint against arresting officer. This is a ‘historic enquiry’ so what further enquiries are necessary?

6). Make a Freedom of Information demand to the MOD for the identity of the complainant and, more importantly, if the complainant is or was a paid intelligence source. This will really mess them up because if there is even a sniff of something untoward, they will have to drop it for fear of negative publicity.

Please help by circulating this information (or this blog) to any serviceman or veteran you might know because one way or another, we have to put a stop to it.

After all, if a nation puts its military on the back foot it won’t be too long before it doesn’t have a military left. And in these uncertain times, we as a nation are going to need them more than ever.

If you would like to see more information about the kind of thing going on, please visit one of the following:

Not surprisingly, many people are assuming that this has been done to take a pop at Mr. Corbyn and the left-wing with others claiming it’s being done to avoid any kind of ‘scene’ on the day. There are even some allegations flying around that it’s yet another attack on both the veteran community and the armed forces by a government who seems hell-bent on running our military into the ground.

All of this is, to be frank, bollocks.

As someone who actually takes part in that parade as a member of the Falklands Veterans element, I can tell you that this decision isn’t just welcome, it’s long overdue.

Many of the men and women will be marching on Nov 8 are of seriously advancing years and whilst all of them are not only honoured to be taking part but will often have been looking forward to it all year, doing so is actually physically demanding. Remember, we don’t just stand in Whitehall and march past the memorial as part of the service, we have to gather in Horse Guards for an hour beforehand and that means a long time on our feet. And whilst we all do it willingly, believe me when I say that even for me with my dodgy back, it’s tough. Goodness only knows what it’s like for someone in their 80’s who has dodgy joints and so whoever made the decision to trim it down to make it easier for the old boys to pay their respects to their comrades in the most hallowed of places should be applauded.

Remembrance Sunday is about one thing and one thing only. It’s not the politicians, the nation, the commonwealth or even the Royal Family. It’s not even about the men and women who will march on the day. It’s about the men and woman whose names are engraved on memorials or headstones the world over. Because lest we forget, they and their memory are the most important participants of all.

No, it’s not the one you are thinking about, horrific though that was, it’s another one.

This one.

I know something of the background to this and I’m glad to say that thanks largely to the veteran community on social media but primarily to some of the excellent charities who support homeless veterans, the guy and his family are now receiving the help he needed. But that’s not the point, the point is that he ended up in this desperate situation in the first place.

That he did so is a source of shame to us all.

A nation is defined in many ways but to me, a key reflection of a country is the way it looks after those who have served to defend and protect it. One only has to look toward the US to see the reverence with which it treats its military veterans to see that and the same can be said of many countries across the world. So why is it not the same here?

For sure, things are much better than they were 20 years ago when telling someone you were an ex-serviceman was akin to an admission of leprosy, but even now, veterans are frequently regarded as second class citizens. That’s especially true when it comes to the issue of social housing which goes some to explaining why there are in the region of 4500 veterans currently living on the streets of Britain.

Yes, that’s right. Four thousand five hundred.

That isn’t right, it isn’t fair and it’s actually contrary to the Armed Forces Covenant which states that local authorities in England give additional priority to members of the armed forces community with urgent housing needs. Well if being homeless isn’t urgent, I don’t know what is yet all too often, and for all kinds of reasons, elected officials are allowed to duck their duty of care and instead, abdicate their responsibility toward veterans to charity.

But at a time when this country is once again on the verge of asking our men and women in uniform to place their lives in danger to protect our way of life, should we, and especially our elected officials, not be doing better for their comrades? Of course we should. Not just for their sakes, but for the sake of all those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Be it on The Somme, Normandy, Burma, Korea, Northern Ireland, The Falklands, Kuwait, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan or any one of a thousand conflicts in which the British military have been involved.

As I type this, Britain is enjoying what will surely go down as one of the great events of the modern age. Coming 12 months after the world saw the very worst this country has to offer being conducted by the very worst our society has to offer, we are now seeing Britain at its very, very best.

Our nation is full of joy and optimism, our athletes are quite simply astonishing and each day brings things we never thought we would ever see. And as if that isn’t enough, we have the Paralympics to come. Surely as wonderful an example of the triumph of the human spirit as anyone could hope for.

You look at all that, all this and it’s clear, Britain really is Great. Despite the best efforts of Labour it always was and always will be. TeamGB, that sums it up perfectly.

Yet the truth is that this is the tip of the iceberg and that iceberg has been gently drifting along for decades driven by the quiet resolve that is middle England.

From our amazing troops to the women of the WRVS and a million points between , this country of ours has always been full of hope, goodness and inspiration. And this brings me to my point.

Why is it that you feel the need to ignore these good people and their amazing stories and instead feed us a daily dose of crap? Why do you assume that anyone has any interest in page upon page of PR spin about airheads who have contributed little or nothing to the fabric of this country?

Yet every single day you dish up a diet of bullshit about The Only Way is Essex and Big Brother as if the people involved are somehow important. Newsflash: they aren’t and they never will be.

Furthermore, why do you assume anyone cares about Imogen Thomas, Sophie Anderton, Katie Price or any other of the myriad of nomarks who fill your ‘news’ paper every single fucking day? Most of them might as well be names in a phone directory for all the meaning they have to me and I’m certainly not going to waste time reading about them in an effort to find out who they are because chances are I won’t care anyway.

And why this fascination with the Kardashian family? From what I can tell all they are is a bunch of good looking dysfunctionals who have somehow managed to manipulate the media into thinking they have some kind of value. Manipulation which you have clearly fallen for because they actually don’t. They are only a story because you make them a story!

The Daily Mail was once a great news paper. Sadly, thanks to a seemingly fanatical desire to avoid listening to its readership, it has become little more than a down market version of OK magazine and you should be ashamed.

Look at the photo to the top left of this post because it says everything the people of this nation feel. When we are in positive mode, we are untouchable and as you may have noticed, we like being in positive mode.

If you follow that message and give us positivity, maybe I and the many thousands of others who have deserted you will come back.

Respectfully yours.

Dougie Brimson

Thanks to everyone for what’s going on book wise at the moment but for those who don’t know, I’m currently dominating the football book download charts of both Amazon and iTunes with books at #1 on both free and paid charts. On top of that, of the top 36 soccer books on iTunes, 8 are my titles.

I am delighted and not a little relieved to finally release brief details of my next movie project.

Provisionally entitled ‘Solider, Soldier’ it centres on the rehabilitation of a British Muslim soldier who loses both legs as well as his best mate in an IED incident in Afghanistan and touches on all kinds of issues ranging from family loyalties to the problems faced by Muslims fighting in the British Army.

The script has been written by myself with additional writing by my old friend Clare Perry and is being produced by Rakha Singh who made ‘The Killing of John Lennon’. The awesome David Blair who made the brilliant ‘Accused’ series for the BBC will direct.

We are currently looking at casting but former Eastenders star Ace Bhatti will play the lead role and since the plan is to film in Bradford, we have been lucky enough to secure an agreement from local MP George Galloway to play a cameo role.

Financing is well under way and I will of course release more details as and when I can.

Exciting times!

The Crew. Still #1

BTW, continued thanks to all of you who are keeping The Crew at number 1 in both the Amazon and iTunes football charts. It’s held the top slot for pretty much 8 solid months now and that’s entirely thanks to you lot.

Work on the third book in the trilogy will commence as soon as Wings of a Sparrow is complete and that won’t be long now. Honest guv.

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